As illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B, an interior of the refrigerator is divided into a freezing compartment 10 and a refrigerating compartment 30 by means of a barrier 20 that is filled with an insulating material. An evaporator 12, through which a coolant of low temperature and low pressure passes, is mounted in an interior of a heat exchange chamber 11 that is disposed in a rear portion of the freezing compartment 10. A fan 14 is provided over the evaporator 12 so as to forcibly send cooling air, which is generated by the evaporator 12, to the freezing compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 30.
Formed in the barrier 20 are a cooling air supplying passage 22, through which the cooling air generated by the evaporator 12 in the heat exchange chamber 11 is supplied to the refrigerating compartment 30, and an air returning passage 24, through which air warmed while being circulated in the refrigerating compartment 30 is returned toward the evaporator 12.
Further, the lower end of the cooling air supplying passage 22 formed in the barrier 20 is connected to a cooling air discharging unit 32. The cooling air discharging unit 32 is widely formed in a ceiling of the refrigerating compartment 30 and serves to discharge the cooling air supplied therein to an interior of the refrigerating compartment 30.
As shown in FIG. 1B, a plurality of shelf supporting rails 38a, each having a plurality of engagement slots 38a′, are vertically mounted on an inner wall 38 of the refrigerating compartment 30. More particularly, two are mounted on a right and left portion of the inner wall 38 of the refrigerating compartment 30 and one is mounted on a central portion of the inner wall 38. The shelf supporting rails 38a serve to support cantilever shelves 34 with hooks of support brackets (not shown) of the cantilever shelves 34 respectively inserted into and engaged with the engagement slots 38a′ thereof.
Additionally, a vegetable compartment 36 is provided in a lower portion of the refrigerating compartment 30, and a machine room M, in which a compressor 40 is mounted, is formed in a lower, rear portion of the refrigerator.
Hereinafter, the circulation of the cooling air in the refrigerator with the configuration as described above will be described.
One portion of the cooling air is supplied to the freezing compartment 10 by means of the fan 14, and the remaining portion of the cooling air is supplied toward the refrigerating compartment 30 by means of the fan 14. The cooling air, which is supplied toward the refrigerating compartment 30, descends down from the heat exchange chamber 11 to the cooling air discharging unit 32 formed in the ceiling of the refrigerating compartment 30 through the cooling air supplying passage 22 formed in the barrier 20. Then, the cooling air is discharged from the cooling air discharging unit 32 to be introduced into the interior of the refrigerating compartment 30, and, subsequently, is supplied to divisions partitioned by the cantilever shelves 34 and the vegetable compartment 36 over a period of time.
The refrigerator with the configuration as described above has problems as follows. The cooling air is supplied to the refrigerating compartment 30 via the cooling air discharging unit 32 formed in the ceiling of the refrigerating compartment 30. So, gradually the cooling air flows from the upper cantilever shelf 34 to the lower cantilever shelf 34 over a period of time. Therefore, the cooling air, which reaches the lowermost cantilever shelves 34, has a relatively high temperature, which hinders the interior of the refrigerating compartment 30 from being cooled uniformly. This also deteriorates a cooling speed of the refrigerating compartment 30.
To address the aforementioned problems, U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,530 entitled “COOLING AIR SUPPLYING STRUCTURE FOR A REFRIGERATOR HAVING CANTILEVER SHELVES” discloses a cooling air supplying structure, which includes a cooling air supplying duct being vertically mounted on the inner wall of the refrigerating compartment, shelf support rails having a plurality of engagement slots, at least one of the shelf supporting rails being mounted to the cooling air supplying duct, and cantilever shelves respectively supported by the shelf supporting rails.
However, the cooling air supplying structure disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. patent has a problem that it is difficult to install the cooling air supplying structure on the inner wall of the refrigerating compartment since the cooling air supplying duct has a recessed portion on its central portion for receiving one of the shelf supporting rails, and the one of the shelf supporting rails and the cooling air supplying duct have to be screw-fixed together to the inner wall of the refrigerating compartment.